Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board Trustee Gabe Medina could be restricted from entering the Pajaro Valley High School campus after a confrontation with the school principal.
Item 9.3 on the meeting agenda, during which a “stay-away letter” will be debated, provides little information about why the superintendent’s office is requesting the action, or what legal weight it would carry.
The Pajaronian has reached out to the district for comment.
The agenda item follows an incident on Jan. 30, when PVHS students participated in a nationwide walkout. While school staff and administrators encouraged students to remain on campus during the walkout, organizers not associated with the school reportedly encouraged them to march to downtown Watsonville, according to a letter sent to The Pajaronian from a group of teachers and school employees. A response from Medina follows.
Many students did leave campus, joining others from several schools for a rally at the Civic Plaza.
Medina later reportedly returned to campus to confront Principal Todd Wilson. In an Instagram post, Medina said he wanted to address rumors that Wilson had admonished students not to leave campus, and that their vehicles would be towed and they would face punishment such as Saturday school.
Wilson said those statements are “categorically untrue” and that school administrators only wanted to keep students safe. He declined to comment on his later interaction with Medina.
Medina cited Senate Bill 955, a state law that allows middle and high school students one day per year to attend protests.
However, that law requires students or their parents to notify the school in advance of the event. Students who left campus without doing so would therefore receive an unexcused absence.
In the letter, teachers said school officials cannot encourage students to leave campus during school hours.
“…to instigate children to leave campus and lead them to the plaza, where no additional platform, perimeters or program were provided before the end of their school day, was not sound judgment by those adults,” the letter states. “The caretakers in us were not impressed and even considered risking reprimand by breaking protocols and walking with kids to the plaza, just to ensure their safety.”
Medina issued a response in which he said he neither encouraged students to leave campus nor organized the walkout.
“I cheered them on, which is visible on my public Facebook post,” he wrote. “Students were already organizing and already moving. My presence was about affirming student rights and observing safety, not directing their actions.”
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The Board of Trustees will meet Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Watsonville City Council chambers on the top floor of the Civic Building, 275 Main St.
Medina needs to be put in a corner with a dunce cap. After that maybe take summer school class, Political Acumen 101.